Systems, devices, and methods for astigmatism compensation in a wearable heads-up display

ABSTRACT

Systems, devices, and methods for preventing image astigmatism in wearable heads-up displays (WHUD) with laser projectors are described. A WHUD includes a support structure carrying a laser projector and an eyeglass lens with a transparent combiner. The laser projector includes at least one laser diode, at least one anamorphic optical element, and at least one controllable mirror. The at least one laser diode generates a laser light that, without optical manipulation, would result in an astigmatic, unfocused image at the eye of the user. The at least one anamorphic optical element anamorphically shapes the spot of the laser light to compensate for an astigmatic effect of at least the transparent combiner. The at least one controllable mirror scans the light onto the transparent combiner and the transparent combiner redirects the light towards an eye of a user to create a focused, non-astigmatic image.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present systems, devices, and methods generally relate to wearableheads-up displays and particularly relate to shaping the laser lightoutput by laser projectors to prevent image astigmatism in wearableheads-up displays.

BACKGROUND Description of the Related Art Laser Projectors

A projector is an optical device that projects or shines a pattern oflight onto another object (e.g., onto a surface of another object, suchas onto a projection screen) in order to display an image or video onthat other object. A projector necessarily includes a light source, anda laser projector is a projector for which the light source comprises atleast one laser. The at least one laser is temporally modulated toprovide a pattern of laser light and usually at least one controllablemirror is used to spatially distribute the modulated pattern of laserlight over a two-dimensional area of another object. The spatialdistribution of the modulated pattern of laser light produces an imageat or on the other object. In conventional laser projectors, the atleast one controllable mirror may include: a single digital micromirror(e.g., a microelectromechanical system (“MEMS”) based digitalmicromirror) that is controllably rotatable or deformable in twodimensions, or two digital micromirrors that are each controllablyrotatable or deformable about a respective dimension, or a digital lightprocessing (“DLP”) chip comprising an array of digital micromirrors.

In a conventional laser projector comprising a RGB laser module with ared laser diode, a green laser diode, and a blue laser diode, eachrespective laser diode has a corresponding respective focusing lens. Therelative positions of the laser diodes, the focusing lenses, and the atleast one controllable mirror are all tuned and aligned so that eachlaser beam impinges on the at least one controllable mirror withsubstantially the same spot size and with substantially the same rate ofconvergence (so that all laser beams will continue to have substantiallythe same spot size as they propagate away from the laser projectortowards, e.g., a projection screen). In a conventional laser projector,it is usually possible to come up with such a configuration for allthese elements because the overall form factor of the device is not aprimary design consideration. However, in applications for which theform factor of the laser projector is an important design element, itcan be very challenging to find a configuration for the laser diodes,the focusing lenses, and the at least one controllable mirror thatsufficiently aligns the laser beams (at least in terms of spot size,spot position, and rate of convergence) while satisfying the form factorconstraints.

Wearable Heads-Up Displays

A head-mounted display is an electronic device that is worn on a user'shead and, when so worn, secures at least one electronic display within aviewable field of at least one of the user's eyes, regardless of theposition or orientation of the user's head. A wearable heads-up displayis a head-mounted display that enables the user to see displayed contentbut also does not prevent the user from being able to see their externalenvironment. The “display” component of a wearable heads-up display iseither transparent or at a periphery of the user's field of view so thatit does not completely block the user from being able to see theirexternal environment. Examples of wearable heads-up displays include:the Google Glass®, the Optinvent Ora®, the Epson Moverio®, and the SonyGlasstron®, just to name a few.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A wearable heads-up display (“WHUD”) may be summarized as including: asupport structure that in use is worn on a head of a user; a transparentcombiner carried by the support structure, wherein the transparentcombiner is positioned within a field of view of an eye of the user whenthe support structure is worn on the head of the user; a laser projectorcarried by the support structure, the laser projector comprising: atleast one laser diode to generate laser light; at least one controllablemirror positioned to receive the laser light from the at least one laserdiode and controllably orientable to redirect the laser light towardsthe transparent combiner; and at least one anamorphic optical elementpositioned in an optical path of the laser light in between the at leastone laser diode and the transparent combiner, the at least oneanamorphic optical element oriented to shape a spot of the laser lightto compensate for an astigmatic effect of at least the transparentcombiner on the laser light. The transparent combiner may include atleast one holographic optical element. The at least one anamorphicoptical element may be positioned in the optical path of the laser lightin between the at least one laser diode and the at least onecontrollable mirror.

The laser projector may further include: a beam combiner positioned inthe optical path of the laser light in between the at least one laserdiode and the at least one controllable mirror, wherein the at least onelaser diode includes a red laser diode, a green laser diode, and a bluelaser diode, and wherein the beam combiner is oriented to combine redlaser light from the red laser diode, green laser light from the greenlaser diode, and blue laser light from the blue laser diode into anaggregate laser beam. The at least one anamorphic optical element mayinclude: a first anamorphic optical element positioned in an opticalpath of red laser light in between the red laser diode and the beamcombiner to shape a spot of the red laser light; a second anamorphicoptical element positioned in an optical path of green laser light inbetween the green laser diode and the beam combiner to shape a spot ofthe green laser light; and a third anamorphic optical element positionedin an optical path of blue laser light in between the blue laser diodeand the beam combiner to shape a spot of the blue laser light. The atleast one anamorphic optical element may be positioned in an opticalpath of the aggregate laser beam in between the beam combiner and the atleast one controllable mirror to shape a spot of the aggregate laserbeam.

The at least one anamorphic optical element may include at least oneprism pair or at least one cylindrical lens.

The support structure may have a general shape and appearance of aneyeglasses frame and the transparent combiner may be carried by aneyeglass lens.

In use, the astigmatic effect of the transparent combiner may cause ashape of the spot of the laser light to change on at least one axis, andthe at least one anamorphic optical element may be oriented to changethe shape of the spot of the laser light on the at least one axis inorder to compensate for the astigmatic effect of the transparentcombiner on the laser light.

A method of operating a wearable heads-up display, wherein the wearableheads-up display includes a transparent combiner that positions within afield of view of an eye of a user when the wearable heads-up display isworn on a head of the user, may be summarized as including: generatinglaser light by at least one laser diode; shaping a spot of the laserlight by at least one anamorphic optical element to compensate for anastigmatic effect of at least the transparent combiner on the laserlight; scanning the laser light over the transparent combiner by atleast one controllable mirror; and redirecting the laser light towardsthe eye of the user by the transparent combiner. Shaping the spot of thelaser light by the at least one anamorphic optical element to compensatefor an astigmatic effect of at least the transparent combiner on thelaser light may include anamorphically shaping the spot of the laserlight to a non-circular spot shape by the at least one anamorphicoptical element; and redirecting the laser light towards the eye of theuser by the transparent combiner may include applying the astigmaticeffect to the laser light by the transparent combiner. Applying theastigmatic effect to the laser light by the transparent combiner mayinclude re-shaping the spot of the laser light to an at leastapproximately circular spot shape by the transparent combiner.

The transparent combiner may include at least one holographic opticalelement, and scanning the laser light over the transparent combiner byat least one controllable mirror may include scanning the laser lightover the at least one holographic optical element by the at least onecontrollable mirror; and redirecting the laser light towards the eye ofthe user by the transparent combiner may include redirecting the laserlight towards the eye of the user by the at least one holographicoptical element.

The at least one laser diode may include a red laser diode, a greenlaser diode, and a blue laser diode, wherein generating laser light bythe at least one laser diode includes generating red laser light by thered laser diode, generating green laser light by the green laser diode,and generating blue laser light by the blue laser diode; and the methodfurther includes combining the red laser light, the green laser light,and the blue laser light into an aggregate laser beam by a beamcombiner. The at least one anamorphic optical element may be positionedin between the beam combiner and the at least one controllable mirror inan optical path of the aggregate laser beam, wherein: shaping the spotof the laser light by the at least one anamorphic optical element tocompensate for an astigmatic effect of the transparent combiner on thelaser light includes shaping a spot of the aggregate laser beam by theat least one anamorphic optical element to compensate for an astigmaticeffect of at least the transparent combiner on the aggregate laser beam.A first anamorphic optical element may be positioned in an optical pathof the red laser light in between the red laser diode and the beamcombiner, a second anamorphic optical element may be positioned in anoptical path of the green laser light in between the green laser diodeand the beam combiner, and a third anamorphic optical element may bepositioned in an optical path of the blue laser light in between theblue laser diode and the beam combiner, wherein: shaping the spot of thelaser light by the at least one anamorphic optical element includesshaping a spot of the red laser light by the first anamorphic opticalelement, shaping a spot of the green laser light by the secondanamorphic optical element, and shaping a spot of the blue laser lightby the third anamorphic optical element.

The at least one anamorphic optical element may include at least oneprism pair, wherein shaping the spot of the laser light by the at leastone anamorphic optical element includes anamorphically shaping the spotof the laser light by the at least one prism pair.

The at least one anamorphic optical element may include at least onecylindrical lens, wherein shaping the spot of the laser light by the atleast one anamorphic optical element includes anamorphically shaping thespot of the laser light by the at least one cylindrical lens.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, identical reference numbers identify similar elementsor acts. The sizes and relative positions of elements in the drawingsare not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the shapes of variouselements and angles are not necessarily drawn to scale, and some ofthese elements are arbitrarily enlarged and positioned to improvedrawing legibility. Further, the particular shapes of the elements asdrawn are not necessarily intended to convey any information regardingthe actual shape of the particular elements, and have been solelyselected for ease of recognition in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wearable heads-up display with alaser projector with astigmatism compensation, and a transparentcombiner in a field of view of an eye of a user in accordance with thepresent systems, devices, and methods.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that shows a method of operating a wearableheads-up display with a laser projector with astigmatism compensation inaccordance with the present systems, devices, and methods.

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of a wearable heads-up display with a laserprojector with astigmatism compensation in accordance with the presentsystems, devices, and methods.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, certain specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of various disclosedembodiments. However, one skilled in the relevant art will recognizethat embodiments may be practiced without one or more of these specificdetails, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In otherinstances, well-known structures associated with portable electronicdevices and head-worn devices, have not been shown or described indetail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring descriptions of the embodiments.

Unless the context requires otherwise, throughout the specification andclaims which follow, the word “comprise” and variations thereof, suchas, “comprises” and “comprising” are to be construed in an open,inclusive sense, that is as “including, but not limited to.”

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singularforms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the contentclearly dictates otherwise. It should also be noted that the term “or”is generally employed in its broadest sense, that is as meaning “and/or”unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.

The headings and Abstract of the Disclosure provided herein are forconvenience only and do not interpret the scope or meaning of theembodiments.

The various embodiments described herein provide systems, devices, andmethods for astigmatism compensation and are particularly well-suitedfor use in wearable heads-up displays.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wearable heads-up display 100 with alaser projector 120 with astigmatism compensation, and a transparentcombiner 111 in a field of view of an eye 170 of a user in accordancewith the present systems, devices, and methods. WHUD 100 includes asupport structure, with the general shape and appearance of aneyeglasses frame, carrying an eyeglass lens 110 with a transparentcombiner 111, and a laser projector 120. Laser projector 120 includeslaser diodes 131, 132, and 133, a beam combiner 140 including opticalelements 141, 142, and 143, an anamorphic optical element 150, and acontrollable mirror 160. WHUD 100 positions within a field of view ofthe user when worn on the head of the user.

Throughout this specification and the appended claims, the term“carries” and variants such as “carried by” or “carrying” are generallyused to refer to a physical coupling between two objects. The physicalcoupling may be direct physical coupling (i.e., with direct physicalcontact between the two objects) or indirect physical coupling mediatedby one or more additional objects. Thus the term carries and variantssuch as “carried by” are meant to generally encompass all manner ofdirect and indirect physical coupling.

Exemplary wearable heads-up display 100 operates as follows. Laserdiodes 131, 132, and 133 of laser projector 120 generate laser lighthaving a “spot”. The laser light “spot”, or variants such as “spotshape” refers to the cross-sectional area of the laser light at anypoint, and includes both the size and the geometric shape of the area.In exemplary WHUD 100, laser diode 131 is a red laser diode thatgenerates red laser light, laser diode 132 is a green laser diode thatgenerates green laser light, and laser diode 133 is a blue laser diodethat generates blue laser light. The output of light from the laserdiodes may be modulated via signals produced by a processor (e.g.microprocessor, field programmable gate array, application specificintegrated circuit, programmable logic controller or other hardwarecircuitry), and the processor may be communicatively coupled to anon-transitory processor-readable storage medium (e.g., volatile memorysuch as Random Access Memory (RAM), memory caches, processor registers;nonvolatile memory such as Read Only Memory, EEPROM, Flash memory,magnetic disks, optical disks) that stores processor-executable dataand/or instructions. In other implementations, the number, type, andoutput wavelength of light sources may be different. The red laserlight, green laser light, and blue laser light are directed towards beamcombiner 140. Beam combiner 140 includes three optical elements 141,142, and 143. The red laser light is directed towards optical element141. Optical element 141 is a mirror that reflects the red laser lighttowards optical element 142. The green laser light is directed towardsoptical element 142. Optical element 142 is a dichroic mirror that istransmissive of the red laser light and reflective of the green laserlight. The red laser light and green laser light are combined by opticalelement 142 and directed towards optical element 143. The blue laserlight is directed towards optical element 143. Optical element 143 is adichroic mirror that is transmissive of the blue laser light andreflective of the red laser light and the green laser light. Opticalelement 143 combines the red laser light, green laser light, and bluelaser light into an aggregate beam and directs the aggregate beamtowards anamorphic optical element 150.

The aggregate beam incident on anamorphic optical element 150 may have aspot shape that would result in an astigmatic image at the eye of theuser if not re-shaped by anamorphic optical element 150. Astigmatismoccurs when rays of light within the same beam but on orthogonal axeshave different rates of convergence. Light on one of the axes will befocused in front or behind the light on the other axis resulting in anunfocused image. For example, the laser light at the eye may have anelliptical shape wherein the width of the light on the horizontal axismay be greater than the height of the light on the vertical axis or viceversa, resulting in the light on the horizontal axis focusing relativelybehind the light on the vertical axis. Such an elliptical laser lightshape, when viewed by a user, would result in astigmatism of the image,while a circular laser light shape at the eye of the user does notresult in astigmatism (if the eye itself is not astigmatic). Ananamorphic optical element magnifies light unequally on orthogonal axes,therefore, after light passes through an anamorphic optical element, thespot of the light is re-shaped in a non-uniform manner. For example, ifthe original laser light shape was an ellipse 1.0 mm wide and 0.2 mmhigh, an anamorphic optical element may alter this by magnifying thelaser light on the horizontal axis by a factor of one and the laserlight on the vertical axis by a factor of five to achieve anapproximately circular laser light shape 1.0 mm wide and 1.0 mm high. Aperson of skill in the art will appreciate that depending on thespecific architecture of the WHUD (e.g., location of the projector,optical characteristics of projector components, etc.) the shape oflaser light output from the at least one anamorphic optical element maynot be circular. For example, an optical element downstream of ananamorphic optical element in the optical path of laser light may havean astigmatic effect on the laser light and, the anamorphic opticalelement may shape the spot of the laser light to a non-circular spotshape that compensates for the astigmatic effect of that opticalelement.

In FIG. 1, the aggregate beam passes through anamorphic optical element150 and is magnified unequally on orthogonal axes, resulting in acompensatory shape of the laser spot. The aggregate beam is directedtowards controllable mirror 160. Anamorphic optical element 150 may beat least one prism pair or at least one cylindrical lens. In anotherembodiment, a prism pair or a cylindrical lens could be presentimmediately after each laser diode and before the beam combiner in theoptical path of the laser light instead of having one prism pair orcylindrical lens after the beam combiner in the optical path of theaggregate beam. That is, a first anamorphic optical element could belocated in the path of the red laser light between red laser diode 131and optical element 141 to shape the red laser light, a secondanamorphic optical element could be located in the path of the greenlaser light between green laser diode 132 and optical element 142 toshape the green laser light, and a third anamorphic optical elementcould be located in the path of the blue laser light between blue laserdiode 133 and optical element 143 to shape the blue laser light.

Controllable mirror 160 scans the laser light onto transparent combiner111 carried by eyeglass lens 110. Controllable mirror 160 may be asingle bi-axial scan mirror or two single-axis scan mirrors may be usedto scan the laser light onto transparent combiner 111. Transparentcombiner 111 may be a holographic combiner with at least one holographicoptical element. Eyeglass lens 110 may be a non-prescription orprescription lens. Transparent combiner 111 has an astigmatic effect andanamorphically shapes the spot of the laser light on at least one axis.Anamorphic optical element 150 compensates for this astigmatic effect byanamorphically shaping the spot on the same axis (or axes) astransparent combiner 111. Transparent combiner 111 redirects the laserlight towards a field of view of eye 170 of the user. Because the spotof the laser light has been shaped by anamorphic optical element 150 tocompensate for the astigmatic effect of transparent combiner 111, thelaser light redirected from the transparent combiner will have an atleast approximately circular spot shape. A person of skill in the artwill appreciate that the required precision of the circular shape of thespot would depend on the specific architecture of the wearable-heads updisplay, however, an exemplary measurement may be that any diameter ofthe beam be within five percent of a given or nominal length ordimension. The laser light redirected towards eye 170 of the user may becollimated by the transparent combiner, wherein the spot at transparentcombiner 111 is approximately the same size and shape as the spot at eye170 of the user. The laser light is converged by eye 170 to a focalpoint at the retina of eye 170 and creates an image that is focused andhas no astigmatism. A person of skill in the art will appreciate thatWHUD 100 optical elements other than transparent combiner 111 may havean astigmatic effect on the laser light and that shaping of the spot ofthe laser light by anamorphic optical element 150 compensates for thenet laser light astigmatism. That is, anamorphic optical element 150shapes the spot of the laser light to compensate for the shape of thelaser light that would be redirected from transparent combiner 111 toeye 170 in the absence of anamorphic optical element 150, and not tocompensate solely for the astigmatic effect of transparent combiner 111on the laser light. A person of skill in the art will also appreciatethat the optical function of an anamorphic optical element is fixed andtherefore the net astigmatic effect of the optical elements of thewearable heads-up display on the laser light must be known to determinethe required anamorphic optical element.

FIG. 2 shows a method 200 of operating a wearable heads-up display witha laser projector with astigmatism compensation in accordance with thepresent systems, devices, and methods. The WHUD of FIG. 2 may besubstantially similar to WHUD 100 of FIG. 1 and generally includes asupport structure carrying: a laser projector comprising at least onelaser diode, an anamorphic optical element, and a controllable mirror,and a transparent combiner carried by an eyeglass lens. Method 200includes acts 201, 202, 203, and 204, though those of skill in the artwill appreciate that in alternative embodiments certain acts may beomitted and/or additional acts may be added. Those of skill in the artwill also appreciate that the illustrated order of the acts is shown forexemplary purposes only and may change in alternative embodiments.

At 201, the at least one laser diode generates a laser light that,without shaping of the spot by the anamorphic optical element, wouldresult in astigmatism of the image output by the WHUD. The laser diodemay be communicatively coupled to a processor which modulates thegeneration of laser light by the at least one laser diode via controlsignals. The at least one laser diode may include a red laser diode togenerate red laser light, a green laser diode to generate green laserlight, and a blue laser diode to generate blue laser light, wherein thelaser projector also includes a beam combiner to combine the red laserlight, green laser light, and blue laser light into an aggregate beam.

At 202, the spot of the laser light is shaped by the at least oneanamorphic optical element. The at least one anamorphic optical elementmagnifies the laser light unequally on orthogonal axes as discussedabove. The anamorphic optical element shapes the spot to compensate forastigmatic effects from at least the transparent combiner, but maycompensate for astigmatic effects from any and all optical elements ofthe WHUD, both upstream and downstream of the anamorphic opticalelement. If the only source of astigmatic effect is the transparentcombiner, the anamorphic optical element may shape the laser light spotto a non-circular shape. If other WHUD optical elements are sources ofastigmatic effects then the shaped laser light spot may be non-circularor circular depending on the locations and specific astigmatic effect ofeach optical element. That is, if elements in the optical path of thelaser light beyond the anamorphic optical element (e.g., the transparentcombiner) have a net astigmatic effect, the spot shape output from theanamorphic optical element would be non-circular to compensate, but ifnet astigmatic effect of the WHUD optical elements (including thetransparent combiner) in the optical path of the laser light beyond theanamorphic optical element is zero, the second spot shape would becircular. In an embodiment where the laser projector includes a redlaser diode to generate red laser light, a green laser diode to generategreen laser light, a blue laser diode to generate blue laser light, anda beam combiner to combine the laser light into an aggregate beam, theat least one anamorphic optical element may be a single anamorphicoptical element located in the path of the aggregate beam after the beamcombiner and before the controllable mirror, or the at least oneanamorphic optical element may include a first anamorphic opticalelement located in the path of the laser light between the red laserdiode and the beam combiner to shape the red laser spot, a secondanamorphic optical element in the path of the laser light between thegreen laser diode and the beam combiner to shape the green laser spot,and a third anamorphic optical element in the path of the laser lightbetween the blue laser diode and the beam combiner to shape the bluelaser spot. In any implementation the at least one anamorphic opticalelement may be at least one prism pair or at least one cylindrical lens.

At 203, the shaped laser light is scanned over the transparent combinerby the at least one controllable mirror. The at least one controllablemirror may be a single bi-axial scan mirror or two single-axisorthogonal scan mirrors.

At 204, the laser light is directed towards a field of view of an eye ofa user by the transparent combiner. The transparent combiner directs thelight to an exit pupil at the eye of the user. The transparent combinermay be a holographic combiner including at least one holographic opticalelement. As mentioned above, the anamorphic optical element shapes thelaser light spot to compensate for at least the astigmatic effect of thetransparent combiner. The transparent combiner anamorphically shapes thespot of the laser light to have an at least approximately circularshape. The transparent combiner may collimate the laser light such thatthe laser spot at the eye of the user is approximately the same size andshape as the laser spot at the transparent combiner. The shaped laserlight directed towards the field of view of the eye of the user willresult in a non-astigmatic image at the eye of the user.

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of a wearable heads-up display 300 with alaser projector 320 with astigmatism compensation in accordance with thepresent systems, devices, and methods. WHUD 300 includes a supportstructure 380 that in use is worn on the head of the user and has ageneral shape and appearance of an eyeglasses frame. Support structure380 carries multiple components, including an eyeglass lens 310, atransparent combiner 311, and a laser projector 320. Laser projector 320includes (blow-out) laser diodes 331, 332, and 333, a beam combiner, andan anamorphic optical element 350. The beam combiner includes opticalelements 341, 342, and 343. WHUD 300 operates in generally the samemanner as WHUD 100 from FIG. 1.

Laser diodes 331, 332, and 333 generate laser light. As in FIG. 1, redlaser diode 331 generates red laser light, green laser diode 332generates green laser light, and blue laser diode 333 generates bluelaser light. The red laser light is directed towards optical element341, a mirror, which reflects the red laser light towards opticalelement 342. The green laser light is directed towards optical element342. Optical element 342 is a dichroic mirror that is transmissive tothe red laser light and reflective to the green laser light and directscombined red and green light towards optical element 343. The blue laserlight is directed towards optical element 343. Optical element 343 is adichroic mirror which is reflective to the red laser light and greenlaser light and transmissive to the blue laser light. Optical element343 combines the red laser light, green laser light, and blue laserlight into an aggregate beam and directs the aggregate beam towardsanamorphic optical element 350. Anamorphic optical element 350 receivesand anamorphically shapes the aggregate beam. The spot is shaped tocompensate for astigmatic effects from at least transparent combiner311. The anamorphic optical element may be at least one prism pair or atleast one cylindrical lens. The aggregate beam is then directed towardtransparent combiner 311 by at least one controllable mirror (not shownin FIG. 3). The at least one controllable mirror may be a singlebi-axial scan mirror or may be two single-axis scan mirrors. The spot ofthe aggregate beam is anamorphically shaped by transparent combiner 311to a circular shape. The aggregate beam is directed towards a field ofview of an eye of a user by transparent combiner 311. Transparentcombiner 311 collimates the aggregate beam such that the spot of thelaser light incident on the eye of the user is at least approximatelythe same size and shape as the spot at transparent combiner 311. Thetransparent combiner may be a holographic combiner that includes atleast one holographic optical element, and the holographic opticalelement may have an astigmatic effect.

A person of skill in the art will appreciate that the variousembodiments for astigmatism compensation described herein may be appliedin non-WHUD applications. For example, the present systems, devices, andmethods may be applied in non-wearable heads-up displays and/or in otherapplications that may or may not include a visible display.

In some implementations, one or more optical fiber(s) may be used toguide light signals along some of the paths illustrated herein.

The WHUDs described herein may include one or more sensor(s) (e.g.,microphone, camera, thermometer, compass, altimeter, and/or others) forcollecting data from the user's environment. For example, one or morecamera(s) may be used to provide feedback to the processor of the WHUDand influence where on the display(s) any given image should bedisplayed.

The WHUDs described herein may include one or more on-board powersources (e.g., one or more battery(ies)), a wireless transceiver forsending/receiving wireless communications, and/or a tethered connectorport for coupling to a computer and/or charging the one or more on-boardpower source(s).

The WHUDs described herein may receive and respond to commands from theuser in one or more of a variety of ways, including without limitation:voice commands through a microphone; touch commands through buttons,switches, or a touch sensitive surface; and/or gesture-based commandsthrough gesture detection systems as described in, for example, U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 14/155,087, U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 14/155,107, PCT PatentApplication PCT/US2014/057029, and/or U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/236,060, all of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

Throughout this specification and the appended claims, the term“processor” is used. Generally, “processor” refers to hardwarecircuitry, in particular any of microprocessors, microcontrollers,application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signalprocessors (DSPs), programmable gate arrays (PGAs), and/or programmablelogic controllers (PLCs), or any other integrated or non-integratedcircuit that perform logic operations.

Throughout this specification and the appended claims the term“communicative” as in “communicative pathway,” “communicative coupling,”and in variants such as “communicatively coupled,” is generally used torefer to any engineered arrangement for transferring and/or exchanginginformation. Exemplary communicative pathways include, but are notlimited to, electrically conductive pathways (e.g., electricallyconductive wires, electrically conductive traces), magnetic pathways(e.g., magnetic media), and/or optical pathways (e.g., optical fiber),and exemplary communicative couplings include, but are not limited to,electrical couplings, magnetic couplings, and/or optical couplings.

Throughout this specification and the appended claims, infinitive verbforms are often used. Examples include, without limitation: “to detect,”“to provide,” “to transmit,” “to communicate,” “to process,” “to route,”and the like. Unless the specific context requires otherwise, suchinfinitive verb forms are used in an open, inclusive sense, that is as“to, at least, detect,” to, at least, provide,” “to, at least,transmit,” and so on.

The above description of illustrated embodiments, including what isdescribed in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limitthe embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Although specificembodiments of and examples are described herein for illustrativepurposes, various equivalent modifications can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosure, as will be recognized bythose skilled in the relevant art. The teachings provided herein of thevarious embodiments can be applied to other portable and/or wearableelectronic devices, not necessarily the exemplary wearable electronicdevices generally described above.

For instance, the foregoing detailed description has set forth variousembodiments of the devices and/or processes via the use of blockdiagrams, schematics, and examples. Insofar as such block diagrams,schematics, and examples contain one or more functions and/oroperations, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that eachfunction and/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, orexamples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a widerange of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combinationthereof. In one embodiment, the present subject matter may beimplemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodimentsdisclosed herein, in whole or in part, can be equivalently implementedin standard integrated circuits, as one or more computer programsexecuted by one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs runningon one or more computer systems), as one or more programs executed by onone or more controllers (e.g., microcontrollers) as one or more programsexecuted by one or more processors (e.g., microprocessors, centralprocessing units, graphical processing units), as firmware, or asvirtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitryand/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be wellwithin the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art in light of theteachings of this disclosure.

When logic is implemented as software and stored in memory, logic orinformation can be stored on any processor-readable medium for use by orin connection with any processor-related system or method. In thecontext of this disclosure, a memory is a processor-readable medium thatis an electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical device or meansthat contains or stores a computer and/or processor program. Logicand/or the information can be embodied in any processor-readable mediumfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system,processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch theinstructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or deviceand execute the instructions associated with logic and/or information.

In the context of this specification, a “non-transitoryprocessor-readable medium” can be any element that can store the programassociated with logic and/or information for use by or in connectionwith the instruction execution system, apparatus, and/or device. Theprocessor-readable medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, anelectronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus or device. More specific examples (anon-exhaustive list) of the computer readable medium would include thefollowing: a portable computer diskette (magnetic, compact flash card,secure digital, or the like), a random access memory (RAM), a read-onlymemory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM,or Flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM),digital tape, and other non-transitory media.

The various embodiments described above can be combined to providefurther embodiments. To the extent that they are not inconsistent withthe specific teachings and definitions herein, all of the U.S. patents,U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreignpatents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publicationsreferred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application DataSheet which are owned by Thalmic Labs Inc., including but not limitedto: US Patent Application Publication No. US 2015-0378161 A1, U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/046,234, U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/046,254, US PatentApplication Publication No. US 2016-0238845 A1, U.S. Non-Provisionalpatent application Ser. No. 15/145,576, U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 15/145,609, U.S. Non-Provisional patent applicationSer. No. 15/145,583, U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No.15/256,148, U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/167,458,U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/167,472, U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/167,484, U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/271,135, U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 15/331,204, US Patent Application Publication No.US 2014-0198034 A1, US Patent Application Publication No. US2014-0198035 A1, U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No.15/282,535, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/268,892,U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/322,128, U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/420,371, U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/420,368 and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/420,380, are incorporated herein by reference,in their entirety. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ systems, circuits and concepts of the variouspatents, applications and publications to provide yet furtherembodiments.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of theabove-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, theterms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specificembodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should beconstrued to include all possible embodiments along with the full scopeof equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, theclaims are not limited by the disclosure.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a wearable heads-updisplay, wherein the wearable heads-up display includes a transparentcombiner that positions within a field of view of an eye of a user whenthe wearable heads-up display is worn on a head of the user, the methodcomprising: generating laser light by at least one laser diode;anamorphically shaping a spot of the laser light to a non-circular spotshape by at least one anamorphic optical element in order to compensatefor an astigmatic effect of at least the transparent combiner on thelaser light; scanning the laser light over the transparent combiner byat least one controllable mirror; and redirecting the laser lighttowards the eye of the user by the transparent combiner, whereinredirecting the laser light towards the eye of the user by thetransparent combiner includes re-shaping the spot of the laser light toan at least approximately circular spot shape by the transparentcombiner.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the transparent combinerincludes at least one holographic optical element, and wherein: scanningthe laser light over the transparent combiner by at least onecontrollable mirror includes scanning the laser light over the at leastone holographic optical element by the at least one controllable mirror;and redirecting the laser light towards the eye of the user by thetransparent combiner includes redirecting the laser light towards theeye of the user by the at least one holographic optical element.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the at least one laser diode includes a redlaser diode, a green laser diode, and a blue laser diode, and wherein:generating laser light by the at least one laser diode includesgenerating red laser light by the red laser diode, generating greenlaser light by the green laser diode, and generating blue laser light bythe blue laser diode; and the method further comprising: combining thered laser light, the green laser light, and the blue laser light into anaggregate laser beam by a beam combiner.
 4. The method of claim 3wherein the at least one anamorphic optical element is positioned inbetween the beam combiner and the at least one controllable mirror in anoptical path of the aggregate laser beam, and wherein: anamorphicallyshaping the spot of the laser light to a non-circular spot shape by theat least one anamorphic optical element in order to compensate for anastigmatic effect of the transparent combiner on the laser lightincludes anamorphically shaping a spot of the aggregate laser beam to anon-circular spot shape by the at least one anamorphic optical elementin order to compensate for an astigmatic effect of at least thetransparent combiner on the aggregate laser beam.
 5. The method of claim3 wherein a first anamorphic optical element is positioned in an opticalpath of the red laser light in between the red laser diode and the beamcombiner, a second anamorphic optical element is positioned in anoptical path of the green laser light in between the green laser diodeand the beam combiner, and a third anamorphic optical element ispositioned in an optical path of the blue laser light in between theblue laser diode and the beam combiner, and wherein: anamorphicallyshaping the spot of the laser light to a non-circular spot shape by theat least one anamorphic optical element includes: anamorphically shapinga spot of the red laser light to a non-circular spot shape by the firstanamorphic optical element, anamorphically shaping a spot of the greenlaser light to a non-circular spot shape by the second anamorphicoptical element, and anamorphically shaping a spot of the blue laserlight to a non-circular spot shape by the third anamorphic opticalelement.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one anamorphicoptical element includes at least one prism pair, and wherein:anamorphically shaping the spot of the laser light to a non-circularspot shape by the at least one anamorphic optical element includesanamorphically shaping the spot of the laser light to a non-circularspot shape by the at least one prism pair.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein the at least one anamorphic optical element includes at leastone cylindrical lens, and wherein: anamorphically shaping the spot ofthe laser light to a non-circular spot shape by the at least oneanamorphic optical element includes anamorphically shaping the spot ofthe laser light to a non-circular spot shape by the at least onecylindrical lens.